...I thought the aliens were beautiful, and I loved their long, thin, graceful, muscular bodies!

They did a great job on the alien avatars for the human characters, but sometimes the fact that it was so well done was, in itself, a distraction.

For instance, the avatar for Sigourney Weaver's character was very nearly perfect. At one point the avatar smiled and it was such a perfect replication of Sigourney Weaver's smile that I got pulled right out of the movie -- I wondered how many people worked just to get that smile right.

For instance, the avatar for Sigourney Weaver's character was very nearly perfect. At one point the avatar smiled and it was such a perfect replication of Sigourney Weaver's smile that I got pulled right out of the movie -- I wondered how many people worked just to get that smile right.

Were you aware that Avatar used motion-capture technology not only for the actors' bodies (you've probably seen videos before of actors jumping around in front of a blue screen with motion-tracking dots glued all over their body), but also their faces? So as the actors moved around, not only were their bodiliy movements captured, but also their expression. Sure, a lot of time was spent scanning & building a 3d model of Sigourney Weaver in Nav'i form, but once that was done, the new system actually should duplicate the actors' mannerisms and expressions accurately.

We bought the Gold Box set of Twin Peaks last year - having the pilot was a major key. The original dvd release (which I still have and need to give to a relative...) - didn't have the pilot, and only had season 1. Brilliant still, but lacking that key beginning. :-)

We're still on a Boston Legal marathon - and I think we're both getting a little tired of it (nearing end of season 2). Probably need to take a break and come back to it. Also watching our usual array of old tv shows when we go to bed - Odd Couple last night.

Saturday Night...The Visitor great, incredible ending.Yesterday... The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Terry Gilliam has outdone himself. GREAT MOVIE Christopher Plumber deserve an oscar nomination for his performance. Gilliam deserves a best director nod. I had a good feeling about this one. The same feeling I had when I walked out from Braveheart, The Titanic, American Beauty and No Country for Old Men.

We have netflix streaming now... so been watching some odd bits here and there:

The Avengers 68 - with Tara King... they piled on the camp a lot heavier once they went to color (including the final Emma Peel year), but it's still fun, just not as fun.

Dirty Jobs - we've always heard about this show, but never watched it until netflix... very fun - we've watched several now.

Leave it to Beaver - netflix has most episodes from all of the seasons available for streaming (while only the first two are on dvd released in '05 and '06). What a fun find! I did just read that the entire series is coming to dvd this summer - which is a must buy for us.

MacMillan and Wife - 70's murder/mystery show with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James that rotated with Columbo and McCloud (I think) on Sunday nights. Fun show. Only the 1st season is on dvd, but most episodes from the entire series are available for streaming. I'm a huge fan of these types of murder mystery shows... Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Monk, etc...

I suppose it's not bad as an action film, but despite the 'Salvation' angle I think it loses sight of the earleir films.

If Skynet had such control over everything how would north americans obtain enough fuel to fly planes and helicopters?and given the chance to kill Kyle Rees, they did not.....

Way too many whatifs in the Terminator movies In the movie skynet admits that it had to upgrade the terminators because the past, or rather, future or, well, just failures of each terminator, as seen in the "present time" of the prequel movies .... so it's like they're changing their strategy based on things they haven't done yet but already know about.

The obvious thing to me that came up was if the machines knew that they were going to fail, why send a terminator back at all to kill Sarah Connor? No terminator sent= no Kyle Reese sent= no John Connor.It'd probably be harder for the resistance to send back Kyle Reese with no terminator to fight, with the sole mission being "high I'm Kyle Reese, the father of your child who'll lead the resistance against the machines, and I need to impregnate you".

I did think this though about "Salvation", is that they found the best actor imaginable to play Kyle Reese. He just seemed to have a similar physical sature and personality, so I thought that was a good casting job. Unfortunately he's so young that it'll take a good 3 years or so for him to look more mature to fit any role in a sequel that involves the Reese we knew from Terminator 1.

The 2 best characters were by far not John Connor, and I felt they were wasted to some extent, one certainly more than the other, without giving it away if anyone's remotely interested...

And what's up with these post-apocalyptic women lately, with their bouncy, shiny, pro-vitamin enriched hair? Well, I guess there were a couple of babes in the "Road Warrior" who had time to do make-up, and one of the tougher chicks had classic 80's crimp-ironed hair. Of course if guys have time to shave mowhawks, ladies can use the pantene pro-v...

MacMillan and Wife - 70's murder/mystery show with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James that rotated with Columbo and McCloud (I think) on Sunday nights. Fun show. Only the 1st season is on dvd, but most episodes from the entire series are available for streaming. I'm a huge fan of these types of murder mystery shows... Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Monk, etc...

Another great show in that series was Hec Ramsey starring Richard Boone (of Have Gun, Will Travel). It was about an aging gunfighter who used scientific methods to solve crimes in the later days of the west. It was a favorite of mine.

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A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.